FGG Newsletter March 2022

 

 🍇  Food Garden Group newsletter - March 2022  🍇

 We like to grow what we eat 

__________________________________________________________________________________

In this March 2022 newsletter you will find two inspiring virtual visits to members' food gardens that took place during February. You will see what was added and changed in the Food Garden Group blog this month and be made aware of other food garden info that will be handy to have in Autumn.

 🍇

In My Garden .......

Every month two Food Garden Group members show us around their food garden by taking ten or so photos and telling us some things about each photo. 

In February we were shown the following two gardens:

1. Ngaire and Larry's garden at Mount Nelson and
2. Vivien and Mark's garden at Bellerive

Thank you, Ngaire, Larry, Vivien and Mark, for sharing your food garden experiences with us!

There are more In My Gardens in the pipeline for coming months. Thank you, Pauline and Laura, for taking part in the coordination of this series.

If you would be happy to show us your food garden in ten or so photos, please email foodgardengroup@gmail.com. You will then be contacted to discuss when it will suit you to do this. All you do is provide the photos and texts and Laura, Pauline or I will put them on the FGG Extra blog for you.

 🍇

New or updated on the Food Garden Group blog:

• What are the benefits of having a compost heap in your food garden? And how do these benefits compare with having a worm farm? So why do some food gardeners have both? Read more in the new Food Garden Group blog post Compost heap and worm farm.

• At the food garden visit to Aimee and BJ's garden in November we discussed soil acidity/alkalinity and I demonstrated the use of a pH kit.  I have now updated Food Garden Group blog post Acid or Alkaline, so those who were not there on the day can see what the pH results are of very acid or very alkaline soil. I also added some info re adding coffee grounds directly to your food garden soil.

🍇

Would you like to know more about making compost?

In Food Garden Group blog post Making Compost - part 1 you will find ....

• Why make your own compost?
• In order to make compost you need ..
• Setting up a compost heap
• Hot composting compared to cold composting
• Do not add the following things to a backyard compost heap
• How to avoid mice, rats and native wildlife

Making Compost - part 2 covers:

• What is the ideal spot for a compost heap
• The simplest compost heap structure is no structure at all
• Using mesh and a pallet
• Other examples of compost heap structures
• Static plastic compost bins
• Compost tumblers
• Shredders
• How Wendy uses her shredder and tumbler
• Additives for your compost heap

🍇

It is time for pruning stone fruit trees 

The best time for pruning stone fruit trees (peach, nectarine, apricot, plum) is after you have picked the fruit, and when the growth of the tree begins to slow down in anticipation of losing leaves and then going dormant.  That means early autumn, March, NOW!

Some of you may be hesitant to prune your fruit trees, or you may not be sure how to go about it. For you Quick Guide to Pruning Fruit Trees on the Food Garden Group blog contains general fruit tree pruning hints.

Not every fruit tree should be pruned in the same way. For those who do not precisely remember what each type of fruit tree needs, Quick Guide to Pruning Fruit Trees contains specific tips for pruning of Apple and Pear, Apricot, Citrus, Fig, Loquat, Peach and Nectarine, and Plum trees.

In October our ANZAC peach tree had a promising number of juvenile peaches when in rainy humid conditions the tree suddenly was covered in aphids. I sprayed three times and the tree recovered, but lost all its fruit. It then was able to focus all its energy on forming new branches and leaves. The result was the sea of green foliage in the photo on the left.  

Peach and nectarine trees form fruit on one year old branches. I had to prune this tree severely because if I didn't, it would have hundreds of peaches on all that new growth next season. Most of them would remain small or fall off.  The photo on the right shows what was left of the tree after pruning. With a bit of luck I will now have a smaller number off peaches next season that will be large and juicy.

🍇

More things you can do in your food garden in March ...

• Water regularly to make sure your soils don’t dry out
• Make sure beds are well mulched to conserve water
• Keep weeds at bay and don't allow them to go to seed
• Sow green manures where your soil needs to become more open and friable


Vegetables

• Sow in pots loose-leaf lettuce, parsley, celery, brassicas, Chinese cabbage, Asian greens, endive, leeks, loose-leaf lettuce, endive and parsley, spring and salad onions
• Sow in your garden carrot, beetroot, parsnips, swedes, radish, silverbeet, winter varieties of spinach (try sowing one row every fortnight)
• Sow in your hothouse herbs like coriander and dill for use this winter and spring
• Plant loose-leaf lettuce, celery, parsley, garlic and onion and leek (after adding some lime to the soil), celery (if your garden gets little frost in winter), brassica (provide protection against caterpillars)
• Minimise caterpillar damage to brassicas by manual removal, netting or spraying
• Foliar-feed crops once a month with seaweed extract to maximise growth before it slows down
• Collect seeds from heirloom varieties of crops you like to grow again next season
• Remove flower-heads on rhubarb so plants focus on forming leaves
• Dig up potatoes and hill the ones that you are leaving for later
• Put something under pumpkins that rest on the ground so they don’t rot
• Sprinkle sulphate of potash once a month around vegetables that form fruits


Fruit trees and berries                   (* = don't repeat if already done recently)

• Put nets over apple and pear trees, if not already done
• Remove runners on strawberries and put in pots so you have young plants next season
• Thin fruit on apple, pear and quince trees, so fruits become larger
• Remove and destroy coddling moth infested fruit on apple, pear and quince trees
• Trap and kill coddling moths on apple, pear and quince trees
• Check existing coddling moth traps and replace and refresh where needed
• Feed after harvest peach and nectarine trees blood and bone or mature poultry manure (*)
• Feed each citrus tree a full watering can with a tbsp of Epsom Salts + a tbsp of iron chelate (*)
• Remove small figs so remaining ones grow to full size
• Prune apple, pear, quince, cherry and stone fruit trees once their foliage stops growing

For a complete 12-month calendar see Food Garden Calendar on the Food Garden Group blog.

🍇

My little volunteer tomato bush one month later ....

In the last newsletter I showed you a photo of a little tomato plant that had come up between the pavers at the foot of our concrete steps. Without any help from me it had at that time just produced its first flower.  Well, this is what it looks like just four weeks later:

It is twice the height it was before, has three branches, quite a few flowers, and four small tomatoes.  Shows you what a determined plant can do!  

🍇

Happy food gardening,

Max Bee